Going to assume Pegula and company didn't like the criticism of the WGR hosts. I can't imagine going into next season the Bills and Sabres wont have a radio OTA presence. The Bills Radio Network had a lot of stations across Upstate NY.
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Buffalo WGR to Simulcast on 107.7
- Thread starter Buddy Shula
- Start date
Also from what I can see, only Alan Pergament is reporting that both the Bills and Sabers are leaving WGR,
buffalonews.com
Perhaps it too early for an official announcement about the Sabers.
Alan Pergament: Bills, Sabres leaving WGR-AM as flagship station to sell and produce own games
The Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres plan to leave WGR-AM as their flagship radio home at the start of next season for both professional sports teams.
Perhaps it too early for an official announcement about the Sabers.
Your last sentence may negate what I am about to say so either may be worth little more than a grain of salt. However, if WGR actually loses the ability to carry Buffalo Bills home games, that could spell the end for another Audacy property, WWKB. WWKB, a directional 50kW station on 1520 kHz licensed to Buffalo, was carrying overflow Westwood One games when those games were preempted by WGR's Buffalo Bills coverage. If WGR loses that coverage, then it is likely that all Westwood One games that don't include the Buffalo Bills will be carried by WGR and that in turn will probably be the death knell for WWKb, which outside of Westwood One games, carries primarily Audacy's "The Bet" radio network the last time I checked.
The Bills and Sabres will be leaving WGR in Fall.
This whole thing is very interesting. WNED-FM a 96KW station reaches Toronto . I could see this as a landing spot for something sports. Without public funding, they need sales revenue. The Bills and Sabres from Buffalo to Toronto may do that.
If it’s true that Pegula with stream games in house, I can see where they would essentially create an online only station, and charge a fee for the app to hear play by play, etc.
For WBUF, who knows. The format will get ratings, but the revenue comes from a sales staff. That is hard to find right now.
WGR is sports TALK. It’s the talk that matters, not the game. I think WGR can actually become a better sports talk station because of this. Without the burden of sports teams that make little to know money for them. I sold WGR for 20 years. Nobody cares about the play by play. They care about the TALK. That will still happen.
Regarding 1077, I always thought WGR would be correct for that signal. Country was right as well, but Audacy took the cheap way out and it was mainly automated or voice tracked with no promotion. Plus, there was no dedicated sales staff.
All of this adds up to an interesting off-season in many ways.
This whole thing is very interesting. WNED-FM a 96KW station reaches Toronto . I could see this as a landing spot for something sports. Without public funding, they need sales revenue. The Bills and Sabres from Buffalo to Toronto may do that.
If it’s true that Pegula with stream games in house, I can see where they would essentially create an online only station, and charge a fee for the app to hear play by play, etc.
For WBUF, who knows. The format will get ratings, but the revenue comes from a sales staff. That is hard to find right now.
WGR is sports TALK. It’s the talk that matters, not the game. I think WGR can actually become a better sports talk station because of this. Without the burden of sports teams that make little to know money for them. I sold WGR for 20 years. Nobody cares about the play by play. They care about the TALK. That will still happen.
Regarding 1077, I always thought WGR would be correct for that signal. Country was right as well, but Audacy took the cheap way out and it was mainly automated or voice tracked with no promotion. Plus, there was no dedicated sales staff.
All of this adds up to an interesting off-season in many ways.
There are some who say the "sponsorships" and other business mentions they currently do are the same as commercials. In any event, the government funding was less than 10% is their revenue. The rest came from local sources.
My 2 cents: Bill Saurer, who is very close to the Bills brass, is an executive at Buffalo Toronto Public Media. He knows very well how to tee up sports programming and sales of it. He did this for years at Mercury and Citadel. It would not be surprising if Pegula’s Pete Guelli talked to his old friend Bill about an opportunity to take the helm of Bills and Sabres play-by-play.
Here's a thought I'll throw out there for what it's worth: Good Karma Brands, the new rightsholder for the Bills, also reps ESPN Radio nationally. At one time, WWKB was an ESPN Radio affiliate. Then they dropped it for The Bet. But I would guess that Good Karma would love to get ESPN back on in Buffalo. There might be a deal possible for ESPN Radio + the Bills network. How does that sound?
Back in the 90's when WGR did not carry the Bills, they smartly named themselves "the home of the Bill's fan". As you say, their ratings come from the "talk", not the actual games.
I do think the loss of the Sabres will be more noticeable, as those 82 reg season games take up a lot more programming time.
While that would make sense, I don't know if it would be FM. None of the ESPN stations in the big markets are running on FM. Strictly AM.
Don’t some of those big market AMs have FM translators?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Not as many as you might think, because those big markets also have full-power FMs which impact the ability to squeeze in translators without violating second-channel interference protections.
While I doubt that going web-only, especially if one is going to charge listeners to stream the games for either team, will bring in as many listeners as the over-the-air broadcasts did, the open question will be whether or not streaming alone will generate more revenues for the team owners. And right now, my best guess for the answer to that question will be "No."
How long have the Sabres been on WGR? I remember the station had their games in the early 1970s as a few of them were carried by AFRTS on shortwave at the time.
They're NOT going streaming only. That story misinterpreted the release. One Bills Live is going streaming only...
Good Karma is involved to build a new radio network for the team.
What the Bills said:
Bill would be great at this, but in reading and analyzing the statements, radio simply is not a priority. They obviously have a plan to stream, essentially building an on line station. Normally, that would be hard for anyone to get traction with, but the Bills are Buffalos biggest brand, so people will flock to it. I would have to believe they are planning to sell subscriptions to the app. Thats easy money.
But in reading more about this, I am convinced they are going streaming only. Having a radio station involved would hurt their streaming efforts.
However, I am editing this after reading Lance post, and it does mention multi radio partners, so perhaps it is WNED.
In a way, I think this is a blessing in disguise for WGR. They are replacing a lagging country format on 1077 giving GR more geographic and pop coverage, plus WGR will be able to say and do what it wants.
When I was at Entercom, the Bills games and Sabres games did not make money. The sports talk did. Only if the teams hit the playoffs was some money made.
Also, there seems to be a perception that 1077 covers Rochester like a glove. It doesn’t. In metro Rochester and the surrounding populated suburbs, the signal is less than 40 Dbu. Good coverage would be 60 and above.
1077 biggest strength is in the Buffalo area and Genesee and Wyoming counties
This will still be great for WGR.
I can tell you, at BIG WECK and The Patriot, the FMS matter a lot.
Good Karma would not be involved for a pure-streaming play and the release specifically says it is to build out a network and manage ad sales.
The Bills want to control the content, but still need radio. The question is where they are going to buy time and the timing with WNED does raise eyebrows, but they'll likely be reaching out to Cumulus, Townsquare, YOU, and even the possibility to go back to Ausacy for a straight affiliation or time buy.
The station owns the local talk. They had a partnership with the team. Some teams control all the spots during the game, while the station sells the spots in the pre-game, halftime, and post-game. But WGR paid all costs associated with the broadcast. When WGR carries games from syndicators, they get spots during the game as well as around it. So it's a better deal for the station.
Or maybe some form of non-exclusive arrangement, that could mean multiple stations would have access to certain content. The team release hints at that.
Being non exclusive is likely the plan. Here in Arkansas, the Razorbacks college football team is the largest sports draw by far. Those broadcasts are carried on multiple stations of all formats, often with overlapping signals. Whoever wants to pay to carry the Hogs gets to.